Exploring arts & fashions throughout the past two centuries

Category Archives: Rita Hayworth

The Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.

In 1948, at the height of her fame, Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth left her film career to marry Prince Aly Khan, a son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. Because Hayworth was already one of the most well-known celebrities in the world, the courtship and the wedding received enormous press coverage around the world.

They were married on May 27, 1949. Rita Hayworth wore a Jacques Fath dress as her wedding dress. The wedding marked the first time a Hollywood actress became a princess.

On December 28, 1949, Hayworth gave birth to the couple’s only daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan.

Though Hayworth was anxious to start a new life abroad, away from Hollywood, Aly Khan’s flamboyant lifestyle and duties proved too difficult for Hayworth. She struggled to fit in with his friends, and found it difficult to learn French. Aly Khan was also known in circles as a playboy, and it was suspected that he had been unfaithful to Hayworth during the marriage. In 1951, Hayworth set sail with her two daughters for New York. Although the couple did reconcile for a short time, they officially divorced by 1953.

Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale.

The two-piece costume worn by Hayworth in the “Amado Mio” nightclub sequence in the film was offered as part of the “TCM Presents … There’s No Place Like Hollywood” auction November 24, 2014, at Bonhams in New York.

It was estimated to bring between $40,000 and $60,000. The costume sold for $161,000.

Irving Isadore Lippman (1906 – 2006) was born in Edendale, California to Samuel and Celia Lippman, who emigrated from Russia in the late 1800’s. “Lippy,” as he was affectionately called spent 60 years in the film industry beginning as a sixteen-year old assistant camerman on a silent era comedy directed by Fatty Arbuckle in 1922 for $25 per week.

Lippman held various jobs and titles during his tenure in the business from still photographer and film director to cinematographer. He photographed and caught on film such beauties as Mae West, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert and Barbara Stanwyck

His last service to the industry was as cinematographer on Love Boat in 1982. He died on November 15, 2006 in Woodland Hills, California.

Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale who becomes locked in a passionate love/hate relationship with a former flame, played by Glenn Ford, who also happens to be in her husband’s employ.

The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate’s lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis’ wardrobe for Hayworth (particularly for the dance numbers), and choreographer Jack Cole’s staging of “Put the Blame on Mame” and “Amado Mio”, sung by Anita Ellis.

In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.